Monthly Archives: January 2014

I am currently reading Dream Work: Techniques for Discovering the Creative Power in Dreams by Jeremy Taylor, and he has some pretty interesting things to say about dreams. I’ll get into more of that later, but I thought it would be nice to start with the basics–remembering your dreams to begin with!

Jeremy Taylor is a Unitarian Universalist minister who has been doing dream work in churches, schools, hospitals and prisons for many years.

8 Basic Hints for Dream Recall

The single most important step is deciding that you want to remember your dreams.

Next, decide how you intend to record your dreams (a journal, tape recorder) and place the items you need within reaching distance of where you are sleeping so that even half asleep you can record what you remember.

Develop a nightly ritual (it can be as simple or as complicated as you like) for remembering your dreams. This is a way of informing your subconscious that you intend to remember your dreams.

If you awaken with a dream memory, take some notes or record a few key phrases. Usually, this is enough for you to fully recall the dream in the morning.

If you awake without recalling any dreams, try moving into some of your habitual sleep positions. Sometimes, this will help bring back a memory of the dream.

If you can still not remember anything, try running through your mind faces of people you have a strong emotional response to in your waking life. This can also help trigger dream memories.

If you’re still having problems remembering dreams, check your diet for B-vitamins. People who have a regular intake of B vitamins (including those in supplement form) tend to have not only good dream recall but are also less stressed.

Finally, consider sharing your dreams with someone you care about or join a dream group. It is not unusual to improve your dream recall when you have another person or people to share your dreams with.

As I recently noted, when the universe speaks to me in stereo, I try to listen. So, as I am working my way through the remaining codon rings in Gene Keys by Richard Rudd, I discovered the next on my list was the 9th Gene Key. Coincidentally (God-incidentally), that was my hexagram that morning at Tarot.com. The 64 Gene Keys being not dissimilar from the 64 I-Ching Hexagrams, I knew that this was something to which I needed to pay closer attention.

Hexagram 9

No matter what you choose to title the 9th–The Power of the Infinitesimal, The Taming of the Power of the Small or even Small Influences–it all comes down to our tendency, as humans, to completely immerse ourselves in the trivial, and often irrelevant, details of life. For example, anyone who watches “reality” television (an oxymoron if I ever heard one) will find themselves wallowing in this Shadow aspect of the 9th Gene Key. In this case the trivial is anything that is neither beautiful nor practical.

To move beyond this Shadow of Inertia, one must apply one’s energy only to those things that serve a higher purpose in one’s life. Lao Tzu is credited with saying, “The journey of a thousand miles begins with the first step.” Rudd says a more accurate translation is: The journey of a thousand miles begins beneath one’s feet. As always, our focus should be on what lies right in front of us rather than on the future or past–always living in the present moment.

Rudd says an excellent image of this, for both the Shadow of Inertia and the Gift of Determination, is a pathway constructed of stepping stones. If you are lost in the Shadow, then those stones will form a never-ending circle and you may never realize that not only are you not going anywhere, you are wasting all your energy. At the Gift level, however, the stepping stones form a path that continues forward and you lose sight of those stones once they reach the horizon. But, it doesn’t matter. Because, not only do you not care where they are going, you find a sense of excitement in the mystery and adventure of moving ahead one step at a time.

Once you realize this sense of adventure, even the quotidian aspects of life become fulfilling because they all lead you, one step at a time, in the direction of your dream. Without this sense of inner focus, Rudd says, a great deal of energy goes into complaining, whether vocally or mentally.

This Gift of Determination is built on the rock of the very smallest of acts, he says. As Aleister Crowley noted, “Every intentional act is a magical act.” Once you break away from the trivia of the Shadow and connect with your vision or ideal as a feeling and a knowing deep inside, Rudd says, you have truly begun the journey of a thousand steps.

From then on, every single step you take, no matter how mundane it seems, will lead in the direction of your dream, the direction your heart is taking you. And the more you allow every step to fulfill you, the easier the path becomes and the less energy and willpower you must use. Then you tame life instead of allowing it to tame you.

The endpoint of this path is the Siddhi of Invincibility or the power of the infinitesimal. According to Rudd, the infinitesimal is also paradoxical. For, if one, for example, goes on dividing a piece of string in half, one could theoretically go on forever and thus it becomes boundless and inner space leads to outer space, and you become invincible and invisible. And, the only force is the universe that is truly invincible is love. And that is always what everything comes down to–LOVE.

Yes, I know this is a Sunday blog, but the Third Order, Society of Saint Francis brought something to my attention which seemed too good not to share–Winter Feast for the Soul.

According to the website:

The Winter Feast for the Soul event takes place every January 15th – February 23rd, and unites people in their commitment to a 40 day practice of stillness. The commitment to 40 minutes of practice each day for the 40-day period of the Feast allows people to have a life changing experience of the importance and impact of stillness. We embrace all forms of practice that bring an individual to a period of stillness in their daily life.

Please mark your calendar for January 15 and join us! 2014 marks the seventh year of the Winter Feast for the Soul, and we have an outstanding faculty of teachers who are already preparing. Winter Feast is free to all, and is expanding globally each year. Whether it is summer or winter where you are in January, we hope you will join us. Click here to receive more information.

Additionally, the site notes that the 40 minutes of practice can include:

Meditation

Prayer

Yoga

Martial arts

Journaling

Expressive arts

Daily acts of kindness toward self and others

And for those of us who observe Lent, this is a wonderful introduction into carrying that practice forward once Lent begins on March 5.

Observing the birds during the Polar Vortex weather that descended on the South, and watching them deal with the dismal and rainy days following it, I was reminded of a poem by Walt Whitman that I loved as a teenager. Their behavior is definitely something to which to aspire–constantly living in the present moment.

I think I could turn and live with animals, they’re so placid and self-contained;
I stand and look at them long and long.
They do not sweat and whine about their condition;
They do not lie awake in the dark and weep for their sins;
They do not make me sick discussing their duty to God;
Not one is dissatisfied–not one is demented with the mania of owning things;
Not one kneels to another, nor to his kind that lived thousands of years ago;
Not one is respectable or unhappy over the earth.

Prior to the beginning of the new year, I received two emails—one from Simran Singh suggesting I pick a word or words to live into in the coming year, and one from Lissa Rankin suggesting I pick a word or theme for the year—and to do this as opposed to making resolutions.

Had I received only one email, I might not have given it a second thought. But when the universe speaks in stereo, I take it seriously. So, while I was musing on this, and wondering what word or words or theme I might choose, the new year arrived.

And on New Year’s Day, I received this from Rob Breszny’s Free Will horoscope: “I think we humans need some new emotions. It’s true that old standards like sadness, anger, jealousy, and fear are as popular as ever. But I would personally love to be able to choose from a greater variety, especially if at least 51 percent of the new crop of emotions were positive or inspiring. Now it so happens that in 2014 you Pisceans will be primed to be pioneers. Your emotional intelligence should be operating at peak levels. Your imagination will be even more fertile than usual. So how about it? Are you ready to generate revolutionary innovations in the art of feeling unique and interesting feelings? To get started, consider these: 1. amused reverence; 2. poignant excitement; 3. tricky sincerity; 4. boisterous empathy.”

That’s it, I thought. Amused reverence. I had no doubt I could work on feeling that particular emotion as I already feel that God has an awe-some sense of humor. I’ve said or thought “very funny, God” countless times in my life like the time I was angry with Him and was seriously considering taking a break from Morning Prayer and church, etc., and found myself being called off the bench, or in this case, pew, to read for a lay reader who hadn’t shown up for church that day. Very funny, God. I was not even a lay reader in that church. Or, the time I found a penny (pennies from heaven. I find a lot of them—293 this past year.), and was musing on the saying “I don’t even have two pennies to rub together” and one step later there was a penny at my feet. Very funny, God. Because, as long as you have two pennies to rub together, everything will turn out just fine, right?

Then, as I was about to pack away my grandmother’s Hummel Nativity set this morning (the 12 days of Christmas end tomorrow), I realized that I already have amused reverence down pat. After all, it was with amused reverence that I placed the miniature dinosaur (though I no longer remember where he came from) at the nativity scene to begin with. And that’s because, if there had been dinosaurs around at the birth of Christ, they would have made the trek to the manger. At least, I think they would have.

So. Poignant excitement. That is an emotion that definitely bears looking into. And boisterous empathy. That intrigues me as well. Tricky sincerity, though, I’m not so sure about.